


No matter how the Seasons change, always keep an eye out for Wignow. They'll steal your boots in any of their forms, pesky little leaf critters-

by CloudDragon



Category: 4thewords (Video Game)
Genre: (I don't use Neopronouns myself, And with the amount of Wignow typically fought on a daily basis, Doesn't have any major character death yet but it probably will at some point, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Mentions of Death, Neopronouns, Nonbinary Character, So I'm tagging for it now, Thank the universe for fantasy name generator, The PoV character changes regularly, The fact that they could die at any time is heavily present on their minds, Unlike some other creatures in the valley where there's doubt as to what happens when you beat them, Wignow are stated to disintegrate into nothing but essence and leaves, Wignow steal lots of boots, Wignow-centric (4thewords), for it is a life saver and deserves to be praised, lots of them actually, so if I'm getting anything wrong feel free to correct me)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:14:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25362937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudDragon/pseuds/CloudDragon
Summary: Various pieces from the lives of various Wignow, scattered across every biome in Oge-Mai. Also very, very filled with world building and headcanons.Also, this isn't the writing style I normally use, so I hope it isn't too awkward to read.(Am I totally going to make a list of every living Wignow of every type so that I can make a more realistic grow and shrink of their populations and roll for a random Wignow out of every Wignow of that type to write about when I go to write another chapter..? Yeah. Yeah I am. I'm going to go way, way too deep into the behind the scenes work for this thing, I can tell that already.)
Kudos: 1





	No matter how the Seasons change, always keep an eye out for Wignow. They'll steal your boots in any of their forms, pesky little leaf critters-

In a small burrow under a tree, Our first Wignow lives. They were a Wignow of 289 days of age, With the same number of leaves on them, making them appear like a small bush, just a bit bigger than the average Wignow. Their eyes were a pale greenish color, And without the distinctive blue sheen to the pupil that essence-containing Wignow typically had, as they weren't old enough for that quite yet.

They walked through their tunnels, knowing the route well from having traveled it many times before. They walked into a larger cavern, where a single Ardia buzzed near the ceiling, illuminating what served as a small room. The bottom of the room had boots in it, 17 in all. A fairly decent horde for a Wignow of their age, though they had heard of far mightier Wignow out there as well, ones with hoards numbering in the hundreds, Wignows who had lived for years and who, upon dissipating, left chaos and Wignows scrambling to take part of their fortunes in their wake.

The Wignow of 289 days of age didn't personally partake in such swarmings; They knew that it was dangerous, having that many Wignow in one place, each trying different strategies to claim boots from the horde. Some would sneak in on the side and only grab a few, whilst others would try to take the whole horde, fighting off or destroying any other Wignow who tried to come close. The best description of the results is that they were sought out by Dust Warriors and Shamans as the best time to collect essence, and our Wignow of 289 leaves refused to elaborate further.

They walked around the edge of their boot stash, making sure none had been stolen in the time they had been out. They hadn't been able to find any new boots to add to it, sadly; Most of the Dust Warriors had vanished eighteen leaves ago, and no Wignow was quite sure why. There were rumors of new, sock-stealing creatures, with green leaves and rocks in their fur, but our Wignow didn't exactly believe them. Rumors like this had happened before and would happen again; Their theory was that, if such a Wignow existed at all, they were one of the ones who dwelled at the border between the forest and the desert, And had gotten rocks from the desert but also some green leaves from the forest, creating a Wignow those who didn't dwell in that area would find surprising.

Reassured of the fact that none of their boots had been stolen, Our wignow of 289 leaves decided what to do next. They eventually decided to head out into town on a scouting mission, sticking to the treetops and watching the humanoids go about their Sun-in-the-sky. So they set out, making their way up into a tree and towards the town. They were surprised by how few Wignow they passed as they went; They saw maybe twelve, flickering through the trees or making their way across the ground, over the course of their half-hour journey. They supposed they shouldn't be surprised; It was summer, and the numbers of Wignow, from what they had been told, were always thinned at this time of year, the time when Wignow hadn't started to flower yet but there had been plenty of time in the year for them to have been fought and destroyed by Dust Warriors, other creatures, and each other.

The Wignow of 289 leaves knew they were lucky for making it this long. They were still in their first four seasons, yes. But they had seen many Wignow fall, both young and old. Had seen Wignow of three hundred or five hundred leaves of age have quests sent out to be defeated, because they were causing too much trouble. They knew they weren't that far off from causing that sort of alarm themselves.

Which was why, at the moment, they were sticking to the shadows. Wignow were one of the first creatures a new Dust Warrior was tasked with defeating to prove themselves, And at our Wignow's size anyone could defeat them. They reached a good vantage point in a tree, looking down at the ground beneath them. They could hear the sound of a Dust Warrior in a clash against a Nitana in a nearby clearing, but other than a couple of residents the town was mostly deserted. It was better for them this way, they supposed. Less worry of being attacked.

They started to make their way down from the tree, sending out a vine to hook onto a lower branch and eventually getting close enough to simply drop onto the roof of a building, this one on the back of a large, shelled creature that they had never quite been able to figure out the name of. Why bother with names, however? All that mattered about this building was that it had boots in it, always boots a'plenty, And that it was thus a hotspot for Wignow activity.

There had been a variety of methods put in place in an attempt to keep Wignow out of the building; Defensive spikes placed across most of the roof to damage any Wignow who tried to drop onto it, The door was Wignow-proofed - Or at least they thought it was. At the very least, they hadn't figured out how to undo the lock yet. It was just generally very difficult to open doors in general without the grippy grabbers of swords and spears Humanoids had - And the windows were meant to be bolted shut, so that only the humanoids inside could open them.

However, during the hot Sun-in-the-skies of Leafburn such as these, the windows were left open to let air circulate throughout the small store, which was the perfect chance for Wignow to sneak in.

They made their way down onto the windowsill, knowing from their observations that the keeper of the boot store on the shelled beast would be out trading for food at the moment, so they could walk in without worry as long as they got back out quickly. They hopped through the window, landing on the floor.

Several other Wignow turned to them as they landed, one of 109 leaves, another of 367 and another of 357. The 109 leaf Wignow had brown leaves mixed in, which gave our Wignow of 289 leaves the impression that Hu was at least partially a desert Wignow, Which also explained their young age as they had different seeding seasons than those who lived in the forest due to having different seasons(Wet and dry as opposed to Sprout, Leafburn, Bloom and Freeze) at different times.

The trio of Wignow turned to them, One pair of amber eyes and two of brown. The other two looked to also be Desert-Forest Wignow hybrids, with mottled mixtures of brown and green in their leaves. Our Wignow of 289 leaves gave the trio a short but polite greeting, and asked if it would be alright with the group if they got to take some boots as well if they helped the group retrieve them.The youngest of the trio turned to the other two, tilting hus head and asking if that was okay, and whether or not that was normal as Hu didn't have much experience with this sort of thing.

The Wignow of 367 leaves seemed thoughtful for a long moment, before nodding and saying it was fine if Our Wignow of 289 joined them in the heist, on the condition that if there weren't enough boots left for all of them to have the same amount, they would take fewer boots than the rest. Our Wignow agreed to these terms, and, with this agreed upon, the group of four hopped up onto a nearby bench, reaching for shelves where the boots had been stored.There were sheets of foldable wood over the boots, lots of long sticks that could be pulled back or let to fall by pulling on a string, though that had been stuck in place with an object Our Wignow didn't know how to remove, though the youngster - apparently hum name was Orenda - managed to get it un-stuck with relative ease, pulling at it in a certain way with hus vines. Hu pulled on the string once it was free, and the sheet of foldable wood curled upward, like a Pester curling into a ball to drop out of the sky to escape an attacking Nitana. Inside there were four different boots, Just enough for each Wignow in the group to take one.

Our Wignow kept an eye on the door as the others pulled the boots down from the shelves, warning them that the owner of the boots would likely be returning shortly. Orenda thanked them for their warning, to which our simply responded by thanking them for unlocking the shelf the boots were in.

After only a couple of moments, the boots were down, and each Wignow had a boot clutched in their fangs. They gave each other small nods, in thanks and as a way of saying they enjoyed working with them, and then one by one made their way out the open window, scattering into the trees.

Our Wignow made their journey back home, setting the boot with the rest of their horde. They weren't the best boot thief, yet. But maybe, at this rate, someday they could be. It's not a matter of pacing, how fast you collect boots when it came to this. It's a matter of how long you survive. A Wignow could collect twenty boots in a day, but they'd almost certainly be caught and destroyed by a Dust warrior before living to see another one. The best strategy as a Wignow in Luciola was slow and steady, and ours was intending to go very, very steadily for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! It ended up being a lot longer than I intended, but I don't think that's a bad thing either. I'm looking forwards to writing more about Wignow in future! Anyways, I hope you have a nice day and I'll see you around!


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